“The eTakeoff Dimension program is great! When people ask me about take-off software, I always say…….If it isn’t eTakeoff, it isn’t good enough!”

James “Jack” Barrett Jr.The Barrett Company, Canton, TX

“Of all the valuable tools available in eTakeoff Dimension, Drawing Compare has had the greatest impact. These days, there are often many changes to projects after the first set of drawings, and these changes are labor intensive to handle after the fact. Dimension’s Drawing Compare feature has saved me many valuable hours of extra work that I didn’t have to do.”

Glenn CampbellGenset Fire and Security, LLC, Pompano Beach, Florida

“Thanks for your support! eTakeoff Dimension software helped out a ton in landing a huge job! Our timing worked out great! I was able to work on a few smaller projects before tackling a beast. We are all fans!”

Jeff KeyesECI Site Construction Management, Loveland, CO

“I believe in investing in technology that allows our people to be better and more efficient at their jobs. We were manually keying our takeoff quantities into Sage Estimating. There was always the opportunity for error, and it added a lot of time to the estimating process. When I heard about eTakeoff Dimension and eTakeoff Bridge, I was immediately intrigued.”

“eTakeoff Bridge is the missing piece that automates and streamlines the entire estimating cycle, from start to finish. I created and refined all of our assemblies in Sage Estimating to bring consistency and accuracy to the process. And those assemblies are now available to us during takeoff. It makes the process much more seamless and efficient. Consistent, accurate, and reliable estimates are the lifeblood of any successful contractor. Using tools that ensure that consistency and accuracy—and also bring a rapid return on investment—just makes smart business sense”

Michael SeaySeacon Construction

“The support I’ve received from the folks at eTakeoff has been outstanding. Every time I’ve hit a snag their response has been prompt and easily understood. They have been able to answer my questions and clear up the problems every time I’ve had to contact them. I would highly recommend, without reservation, the eTakeoff software to anyone considering the purchase of an on-screen takeoff program.”

Roger D. O’ConnellFinest Kind! Estimating, Lakeside California

“We at Division Seven Inc love your product. We have used other estimating software in the past that has cost much more but did not perform as well. The tutorials make it easy to learn and the support staff has always been quick to respond. It has made our estimating and even project management more efficient. We recommend eTakeoff to everyone we work with.”

Terry L. LewisDivision Seven, Inc., Indianapolis

“eTakeoff is my first choice to use as an on-screen takeoff tool. The other products I’ve tried are cumbersome to use and don’t have nearly the number of powerful features and flexibility eTakeoff offers. All of that PLUS excellent customer service!”

Paul HammellElite Mechanical, Bristol Connecticut

“eTakeoff is an excellent piece of software. It performs takeoff the way it should be done. It’s very user-friendly compared to some of the other on-screen takeoff programs I’ve sampled. Being able to transfer data directly to an Excel spreadsheet is one of the best ideas I’ve seen. That allows an estimator to design a lumber/EWP/hardware list spreadsheet to his own standards. This spreadsheet can be designed in conjunction with the designing of the Quantity Worksheet in eTakeoff so that the connection between the two is easy and clear.”

Roger D. O’ConnellFinest Kind! Estimating, Lakeside California

“The neat thing about eTakeoff is that it can be used not only with plan rooms, but with plans that are emailed to me or on a CD. No other viewers compare to the ease of use and functionality of eTakeoff.”

Jeff AllisonParagon Tile & Stone, Inc., Portland Oregon

“eTakeoff has SUPERIOR customer support! They are friendly, knowledgeable and understand the construction industry.”

Gary BradyConcrete Solutions Plus, Inc., Watkins Colorado

“Using Extensions when doing takeoff works really well and saves a lot of time and trouble – my partner was really impressed.”

Roger O’ConnellFinest Kind, Lakeside California

“I am now able to take one of my worksheets from eTakeoff and paste it into Excel and have it complete the bid right down to the screws needed for the job. Wow how cool, a job that used to take me and most everyone in the office, to check the formulas and totals in Excel before finalizing the bid, now is a split second operation.”

Gerald ShafferMitchell Estimating Services, San Antonio

“Thanks for the great program; it makes my job a lot easier.”

Kevin BilgerEastco Interiors, Inc., Denver

“eTakeoff is the first software I’ve used that thinks like I do. Also, the interface shows most of what you need to see, the plan. The conversion clarity of drawings is second to none and it’s user and computer overhead friendly.”

Ron ZuckerASAP Construction Tech Services, Winter Springs Florida

“I am now doing 5 times as many estimates as I was on paper, with increased accuracy.”

Dan RhodeEnvironmental StoneWorks, Denver

“Our Denver office has taken over the estimating for all 6 of our offices nationwide. We are using one less estimator than we were for Denver alone.”

Garry PriestEnvironmental StoneWorks, Denver

“I don’t care how good you are with paper takeoffs, this is much better. Our accuracy has increased; I am not going back to paper.”

Carl MontegnaMitch’s Green Thumb Landscaping, Denver

“I am performing ten times as many takeoffs and proposals as I was before. I am doing $500K or bigger projects in a couple of days instead of weeks.”

Anthony S. JonesBOSSCo, Inc., Lockbourne Ohio

“I’ve never seen a software package be combed so thoroughly and OFTEN based on customer input. I look forward to these e-mail update notices because I know my job just became faster/better/easier.”

Randall MillerDue South Concrete, Inc. Canton Georgia

“I have been using this product for a little over a month now. I have had such a blast learning this system and putting it to everyday use. It has made my life a lot easier. I don’t have to deal with paper at all and that in itself has reduced my take-off time, greatly. Your suggestion that I learn the shortcuts was right on time. Using the shortcuts makes the job so easy that I find myself using the program like a game and of course that makes the time pass quickly. This program is the Bomb!”

“Our company purchased eTakeoff because of its ease of use and the power with which it deals with electronic plans. In addition, the add-in that is available for lumber estimating was exactly what we were looking for – a tool by a framer for a framer. This is like a new toy for me! I am having a lot of fun doing what has been drudgery at times in the past! I understand they also have a concrete & rebar estimating add-in for those of you needing that.”

Mark des GroseilliersLeBlanc Building Co, Scottsdale Arizona

“I’m quite impressed with how well your Pattern Search works – it’s been great at finding symbols buried under other symbols / lines / junk, faster than I can on a full-size drawing with a magnifying glass”

Ken GordonJamerson & Bauwens Electrical Contractors, Inc., Illinois

“eTakeoff has great support. I sent them an email asking them how to download plans from McGraw-Hill Construction into the new eTakeoff Viewer. They quickly sent me back a response with instructions. eTakeoff, you guys are my heros. One button and, “Bam” there they were. Great job and thanks for the immediate response. ‘All Hail eTakeoff Support’.”

“Your product kicks butt! I love it! It is so intuitive and elegant (best word to describe it). I love the dude (or lady) who created it! Awesome! It really appeals to my sense of economy and reason. Your prompt response and concern, though impressive and outstanding, doesn’t surprise me now that I see how this thing works. I will no doubt be in touch to work out the function details – but my immediate impression is: ‘blown away!’”

Manny AlvarezA-1 Property Services, Inc., Miami Florida

“User-friendly interface and lightning quick…”

We are a general contractor that performs between $20 to 30 million in primarily public sector work in the Chicago Metropolitan area annually. We are signatory to the carpenters and laborers union, and we rarely self-perform any work, except when the terms of the contract require some percentage of work to be self-performed.

We have been using eTakeoff, the Premier version for about 3 years. I generally will take off all the Division 2 work including Selective Demo but not mass grading. We also use it to take off structural concrete, masonry, drywall and framing, painting, windows and doors, Flooring, exterior wall coverings (dryvit, composite wall panel, and curtain wall), Roofing, blocking and flashing, and Division 10 work. If time allows, I will do counts on VAVs, and other HVAC equipment, Light fixtures, toilets, lavs and urinals.

The only things I fix hard labor cost to are selective demo, doors, frames and hardware, blocking installation, casework and casework installation, Trim and trim installation, and Division 10 installation. I assign unit prices to the other work to ascertain my anticipated cost for those portions of the work and use the quantities derived from the takeoffs to check scope as the sub prices come in.

Aside from the user-friendly interface, the lighting quick rate at which the drawings load, the intuitive zoom and scroll drawing manipulation; these are the features I like best in no particular order:

C- Click the tangent point on a curve, then somewhere near the center of the arc, and then the other tangent point, press C and the program, draws a line and calculates the length of the curve. Drawing Compare- Did that useless architect send out revised drawings and not cloud any of the changes he made? That never happens. Use “drawing compare” and overlay the new sheet over the old one to see the changes by comparing the different colored layers.

F2- Allows you to rename the drawing filename from something like “skidmoreacad031212-1.pdf”to “003 A1.11 Basement Plan” right on the page while you are looking at the title block. Pattern search- Want to find, for example, all the Keynote 22s on a page- highlight “22” in the legend and start a search. In a few seconds all, or almost all, the Keynote 22s will be highlighted.

Drawing links- create an Icon on a plan view near a section tag. Click the icon and it snaps to the section even of it’s on another sheet. Open a separate drawing page. The 35 partition types are on one sheet. And the floor plans are on others. Open the page with the partition legend on one monitor, and do the takeoff on the pages without the legend on the other. Use the highlighter or colored rectangle annotation to highlight the partition types you’ve completed. Flip the drawings back and forth between the monitors with a mouse click as needed.

Continue takeoff on another drawing- That sidewalk that starts at the dorm and continues for 3 blocks and 3 pages to the campus. Use this feature to get the total sf/cy/mesh/sand or gravel bed/ for the whole sidewalk length without stopping and starting a new takeoff on each page.

One measurement can yield 16 tons of information– for example if I measure a parking lot, one “trace” yields: Square Feet of BAM, binder, and surface, Square yards of BAM, Binder, Surface, Tons of BAM, Binder, Surface, Cubic yards of Stone, Tons of stone, gallons of Tack coat, SF/SY of Fabric. If I chose to, I could also calculate curb length, CY of concrete for the curb, LF or tons of rebar, quantity of Joint bars, number of expansion joints, tons and CY of stone required for curb leveling, but for reasons that are my own, I take off the curbs separately.

Constant updates, great support, and a partnership between user and programmers unlike any I have ever experienced.

If there is a bug, or a program enhancement that will make the product better, eTakeoff issues an update that notifies you when you open the program, that a new version is available. You don’t have to experience a problem then go to the website to find a hotfix or patch. Or endure the problems waiting for the annual or semiannual release that fixes them.

The support staff is extremely knowledgeable and can help with either technical issues or setting up formulas within the worksheets to help you get the results that you want. Plus there are beau coup training videos on YouTube.

Do you have a suggestion for the program? Submit it though the forum and they will actually try and incorporate it in the program if it makes sense. To date, I’ve had had a couple of my suggestions incorporated in the program. I have never seen a company more responsive to their users than the folks at eTakeoff.

eTakeoff does not provide a database of cost, which suits us fine. Other estimating programs that provide those databases cost 10 times more than eTakeoff cost, and the prices included in those programs never match the regional and market realities.

Additionally, with so much of the industry being commodity driven, the prices are obsolete almost as soon as they’re published. One also has to sort through a lot of prebuilt assemblies and other items that are seldom if ever used in pricing the work we bid. For example, we don’t bid residential work, so why pay for 10,000 residential unit prices that we never use and worse, have to sort thru all 10,000 items every time we need to find some item that is important to us.

eTakeoff is not idiot proof. To effectively use the program, at least the premier version, you should have a good background in Excel and understand the rules for algebraic iteration, because the manner that formulas are set up in eTakeoff are very similar (but not identical to) the way they get set up in an Excel worksheet.

Tom BannonThe Lombard Company, Alsip Illinois

“An incredibly powerful and versatile piece of software…”

eTakeoff is an incredibly powerful and versatile piece of software. I am an estimator for Barrett Roofing, a Union roofing contractor in the tri-state area and eTakeoff has made me more efficient with my time, more effective with my efforts, and more competitive with my bids. I starting using the software in August of 2012 and have since noticed a dramatic increase in both my productivity and my profitability / conversion rate. In only four months we doubled our previous bid-output and decreased our margins of error below 2%. We didn’t add a new estimator. We didn’t start working sixteen hour days. We started using eTakeoff and embraced an era of change.

eTakeoff helped me hone in on pin-point precision for my bottom line so I can win jobs. Period. We have all been faced with the choice of “quality” or “quantity.” This software doesn’t force you to choose — it enables you to take a set of plans and turn it into your trade-specific dollars and cents in a fraction of the time it would normally take. eTakeoff puts the tools you need right at your fingertips — accessible with just a click of a mouse button. eTakeoff is vastly superior to other programs.

The key to winning bids in this economy is competitive pricing that is both accurate and aggressive. eTakeoff affords you all the customization of your own personal “in-house” software without the trappings of a clunky interface and poorly implemented back-of-house functionality.

Setting up the Quantity Worksheet, the Excel Spreadsheet integration, and your “bread ‘n butter” traces can take a little time but it is worth it; the more you learn about the program the easier it will be to put together your estimates. If you’re a novice-user I recommend watching the online videos and taking the web tutorials right on the eTakeoff website or opting for the Customer Support subscription.

The most phenomenal aspect of my experience with the eTakeoff has been my interaction with the team. Their website, forums, and phone-support are friendly, helpful, and very accommodating. They know that we rely on their software to bring home the bacon and I always feel like a valued customer. I have participated in many a discussion both via phone call and the forums regarding changes to the software, new features, and implementation. The eTakeoff team keeps an open dialogue and encourages feedback so they can keep the software updated to the ever-changing needs of their clients.

Brent GorenBarrett Roofing, Danbury Connecticut

“Accuracy, Flexibility and Impressive Support…”

I am the estimator for Excellence in Stone, Inc. Our company fabricates and installs Tile, Stone, Terracotta, and Solid Surfaces in South Florida. We specialize in high end residential and commercial projects up to $7 million dollars. With this much money at stake we needed an estimating software that would allow me to service our diverse and very demanding customers. Before purchasing eTakeoff 4 years ago, I researched most of the estimating software suppliers and decided on eTakeoff because of their accuracy, support system, and flexibility in customizing the program to our unique use.

Because our jobs are so intricate, often including up to 50 different materials on a single job. We cover so many different types of installation ranging from mosaics to cladding large Stone Slabs on walls and ceilings; so I needed a software that would allow me to tailor each unique project to calculate an ever-changing type of data.

As soon as I tried eTakeoff I realized that this was the software for us. It was easy to use (I have never needed formal training, since their menus are self explanatory) and their built in features that allow you to write custom subroutines are so flexible that I fell in love with the product after a week into the trial.

The implementation was a snap, i was up and running immediately, but it is their support team that I am the most impressed with; it is like having your own personal estimating team to back you up.

Over the years, I have asked for special features to be added to eTakeoff and I have yet to be disappointed. I can now estimate 3 times as many projects as I did before, and in today’s competitive market it has translated into a constant stream of work for our company in a construction industry that has been suffering for the past 5 years.

Silvia RojasExcellence in Stone, Inc, Miami Florida

“Very user-friendly…I would highly recommend this product…”

I am a Senior estimator for a general contractor in south western PA. I first learned about eTakeoff from McGraw Hill and signed up for the free 30 day trial. Having used other on screen takeoff programs, I found eTakeoff to be very user friendly and after about a week of using the program and some initial support from eTakeoff’s support team, we decided to buy the software package.

Since we do a large amount of design build projects we often only receive a basic footprint of the building with no scale attached. eTakeoff makes it very easy to set custom scales, all I need is a dimension and I can quickly and accurately takeoff the concrete, asphalt paving, site work and building area using the custom scale setting. I found that once I had built my customized traces that I most commonly use, I am able to quickly do my takeoffs and copy the quantities from the measurement list to my excel pricing sheet. This saves a lot of time by not having to type things twice.

I also have found their support staff to be very user friendly with timely response. I have recommended this product to some of my sub-contractors as well. Since most of our drawings are now in PDF format it saves them time and money in printing cost when I email them drawings for a project to bid. So if you are looking for ways to cut your estimating time and save money also, then I would highly recommend this product.